Ms Simons is a great researcher, rather than a writer, and the result is a book which revealed the true Penny Wong. She was one of the federal MPs I respected most until I read this. Now I realise she's just another politician. ( )

I'm not one of those who dismiss all politicians as self-serving and a waste of space. I've met too many who genuinely wanted to change things for the better, even if I didn't agree with their choices and/or they didn't always achieve their ambitions. But I'm also not one of the 'Penny Wong fan club' or her 235,000 followers on Twitter. I just think she's one of the most interesting politicians we have, and when one of the best journalists we have in this country— Margaret Simons— writes her biography, I want to read it.

Simons bookends the bio with Penny Wong's lack of enthusiasm for its existence. She did not want the book written, though she eventually reluctantly agreed to interviews. Famously circumspect, Wong insisted that her personal life remain private, and consistent with her public persona, though she was willing to own her mistakes and errors of judgement, she also refused point-blank to discuss issues such as the destructive leadership debacle or to reveal any cabinet discussions. Simons had to rely on others to learn that amongst Wong's less well-known political attributes, she has consistently been an astute judge of her leaders, both in terms of their character and their capacity to attract the vote. Simons is even-handed, using multiple sources to unpack the betrayals, but reading between the lines, it's clear that Wong values loyalty and stability. Because that's how you stay in government, and then you can get things done.

Despite these access limitations, Simons has written an immensely readable book, in the notoriously difficult genre of political biography. And in the process, despite herself, Wong came to believe that the book might have some benefits...

Not so much the obvious thing

— a high-profile gay person as a role model for others, and 'that meaning something to vulnerable people

Simons suggested that as the book came into being, she herself

... had come to think of it as being about politics itself: how hard it is, the price that is paid in the struggle to make change, and both the necessity and inevitability of compromise, even when — as with climate change — such compromise may do us in.

Simons likens it to an audience responding to a tragic play leaving the theatre with a greater understanding of the human affairs it depicted.

Perhaps they might also grasp the humanity behind the headlines — and what it meant for a person of talent, passion and principle to devote herself to delivering the service of political representation.

Wong concedes that maybe a book about her career is just a small way in which we can have that discussion about what we hope for and expect of political representatives and the polity, and what we can do better.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/11/21/penny-wong-passion-and-principle-by-margaret... ( )